Sat Aug 30 12:05:12 2008

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Monchengladbach survives Bremen rally

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Monchengladbach, Germany (Sports Network) - Monchengladbach secured its first win since returning to the Bundesliga as they held off Werder Bremen, 3-2 on Saturday.

Karim Matmour, Rob Friend and Alexander Baumjohann each scored goals for Monchengladbach, which lost its first two games of the season by a combined score of 4-1.

Bremen fell behind 3-0 in the second half but they got goals from Claudio Pizarro and Diego in the last 11 minutes of the game to make things interesting. However, the comeback attempt fell short and they have yet to record a win in three games after drawing their first two league contests.

Marko Marin set up the opening goal for the home side 12 minutes into the game when he lobbed a perfect ball over the top of the defense that allowed Matmour to get into the box and slam a shot past Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese.

The lead then swelled to 2-0 in the 30th minute as Marcel Ndjeng made an over- lapping run on the right wing and drove a cross to the near post for Friend, whose glancing header settled just inside the far post.

Monchengladbach keeper Christofer Heimeroth then made a pair of good saves early in the second half to keep his team up two goals, and the home side added another goal to take a commanding lead.

Baumjohann received the ball in midfield on a counter attack and he made his way into the middle of the penalty area before firing a shot into the upper right corner.

It looked like the hosts would cruise to an easy win, but Pizarro scored a scrappy goal from close range in the 79th minute and a brilliant free-kick goal from Diego 10 minutes later made things interesting before the home side could escape with all three points.

Stefan Kiessling scored two times to help Bayer Leverkusen hand promoted-club Hoffenheim its first loss of the season, a 5-2 thrashing. Hamburg scored four unanswered goals, including two from Bastian Reinhardt, to beat Arminia Bielefeld 4-2, while Heiko Westermann's first-half goal was enough to lift Schalke to a 1-0 win over Bochum.

Eintracht snatched a 2-2 draw with Wolfsburg when Faton Toski scored in the 84th minute, while Borussia Dortmund got a goal from Neven Subotic right before halftime to beat Energie 1-0.